THE PUBLIC DEBT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 149, 18 March 1908, Page 4

THE PUBLIC DEBT.

V: Sir,—lxi',roply/ u i6^^so-<!alied;- ; " ispbes^bf--:, at .Auckland,.tho' .Opposition Leader proved by statistics' that, ;demiito tho Prime Minister's high falutin' talk about IpspaijffljftjiiJibisiS paper surplus . and .'buoyant rovenuo, iihafsthc'rp;: has been'ail' .'extraordinary increase .of the public debt. 'Mr.Massey showed that between tho years : t^s^gppss.,public, debt in:' roso from' £57. 8 s;'; in' 189o'"pfc'r , ':liea'd"t6'' £67'vis.«per 'hfcad .cm 1907;f'aii; incrcasd approximately of £10 por Jiejwl.-. That • wstartiing • figures caniipjt bo denied in: faco of. tho fact „ that we have had a long period of famirablo'seasons' anfl: fourteen years ..pf,State Socialism "undo;ii EO-callcd Liiiorafifijigiifio. • I.fpresurao that thp Premior will this, criticism .'in thp same manner thalHio replied to' Professor, ■Le contention that State-owned tip.'Tji'hjj'JJbast- self-supporting • eqtirfpy^^itljj by trying' to com'rnc6''us' tna't "it' 'is extremely l fortunate for .tjibQ in debt, and'to: bo: a position,'that noj ss^Ojiwjfipjiijirqsqfijjl ~a financier' liko Sir - ,]H ; nia»\tain.V It substantially implies that' the" iiiriro a nation bqrrpws :tho more prosperous it becomes, especially when i;uiyK,tlia interest poriloijsjly ' ;, i■■■'■■ -readers to. learn that KcW Zealand, with a population one-fiftieth *|Mt .'of Great Britain and one-ninetioth that of tho United StstoK> has,»; bonded debt por head; that tho! British .national debt per head, and is twenty times Jgrtpt'or than the not American national dobt JBa3.%".F</r purposes';of • comparison, . I copied from the report of the last •TJnjted fcjtatop., c.egsns. tko following figures, shdwiii'g tlio debts' of ''three Amerioan States; I liavo selected from tho list Kansas, Maryland, and Connecticut,;;.becauso theso States approximate to Now Zealand'in population: ! Pqpula- Dobt. Per .• ; Dols.capita. Kansas . ... '1,461,405 632,000 .43 Maryland ... 1,217,174 . 912,000 4.06 Connecticdl'U'' f «offiißs2' . : ■ 677,000 ;:'Va : .7B' Ne(v Zealand '857,539 299,732,000 348.10 jcave it to your readors to draw their own conclusions from theso figures computet! in j'United States currency, aud pass on to consider the rem'edy,v for tho matter. The

Erimo Minister's ,scho,me>',of. emigration to vtako'- tip the biirderi is' worthless,'' sinco tliis cannot liquidate the debt, and that, under present industrial conditions, it would-intensify tho competition botween the workers for omployraent, and in case of' a depression the immigrants might becomo a ,oliargo lipon tho country. Nor will it avail the nidc-bound Government organs to "claim that tho'/increase of tho debt has been niado lmperatiyo by expenditure 'upon land purchase, etc. Tho-plain •trutiy : is'/that the Government has. r'ecoddd ' from • tho ■ Pallanco iion-borrowing policy, and that the supremo ■need at is a reversion to this selfpolity with strict economy in ad;ministration and a sufficient increase of tho ■ordinary:.land t.\x to . mako tho cessation of further loans am, etc/,' Oainaru, March 9! ' F. W. BURKE. .